Tag: #fodmapvegan

This recipe for crispy chickpea wraps is a brilliant way to eat less meat and benefit from incorporating iron-packed chickpeas into your diet. Although chickpeas are notoriously bland they are brilliant for sucking up the flavours of herbs and spices, so they’re ideal for using in Mexican and Indian dishes. They also crisp up beautifully when fried in a little bit of oil which gives them a really intriguing texture because their insides stay soft.

I’m sure we can all agree that it’s a good idea to try to eat at least one vegetarian meal a week (if for no other reason than it’s massively cheaper to make) and this one is ideal for serving to the family. I made these crispy chickpea wraps one night when my (meat-eating, T-Rex-beating in the carnivorous stakes – excuse the pun) stepsons came for dinner and they didn’t realise it was a vegan meal until I told them so after they had finished eating because they thought it was so tasty and satisfying.

I think one of the reasons these crispy chickpea wraps are so good is because there is a gorgeous contrast between the crispy chickpeas, the tender corn tortillas, the crispy, crunchy fresh salad and the smooth grated cheese. I served my crispy chickpea wraps stuffed full of fresh green salad, slices of cucumber, a little mashed avocado and grated (non-dairy, in my case) cheddar cheese. They’re just a really tasty dinner option.

This morning I made Blueberry Pancakes because I had a large punnet of blueberries in my freezer that I’d had earmarked for using in muffins one day, but I figured I might try them in a stack of pancakes instead. I bought the blueberries at a brilliant reduced price from Marks and Spencer and although I had no immediate use for them I thought I’d freeze them to use another day. (The freezing process makes no difference to the taste of the berries whatsoever and is a good, handy way to make sure I have nice fruit at hand to add to recipes.)

I’ve never made pancakes with blended gluten-free oats before, although I’ve heard that they’re a staple for people who can’t tolerate gluten, but I was quite surprised at how tasty they were. Don’t get me wrong, the texture is very different from normal flour-based pancakes because the oats are a considerably more dense ingredient, but they work quite well overall.

These blueberry pancakes are fairly easy to make and although they require 15 minutes at the start of the process to soak the chia seeds, once that’s done all of the ingredients can be thrown into your food processor, blender or Nutribullet and whizzed together to create the batter (with the exception of your blueberries because you want those delicious little bad boys to be kept whole). If you’ve never heard of or used chia seeds before, they’re a tiny little seed which absorbs water really fast and turns into a thick, gel-like consistency, so they’re a really useful ingredient to use if you’re looking for an egg replacement.

This recipe for blueberry pancakes makes a generous stack of fat blueberry pancakes which are soft in the middle, crisp around the edges, and laden with little blueberry bombs that explode in your mouth, flooding it with their sweet juice. With a description like that how can you possibly resist making them?

100g gluten-free flour (I use Dove’s Farm G/F flour because it’s made with low FODMAP ingredients whereas many other gluten-free flours are made with high FODMAP options.)

1 firm banana

1 tbsp sugar

300ml rice milk

1 tsp baking powder

100g blueberries

Method:

Put the chia seeds in a mug and cover them with 2 tbsps of water. Leave the water to be absorbed into the chia seeds for at least 15 mins.

While you’re waiting for the chia seeds to plump up you can put all of your other ingredients (except the blueberries) into a food processor, Nutribullet or blender and blend it all together.

Once the chia seeds are gel-like add them to the mixture and mix again.

Pour the mixture into a jug and stir in the blueberries. (I just used my blueberries from frozen and they worked fine).

Place a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and once it’s hot, cook your pancakes.

Let your pancake cook on one side for a while before peeking at its underside and if it’s brown then flip it over and cook the other side until it’s brown too.

Continue until all of the mixture is used up, keeping the cooked pancakes in the oven on a low heat, and serve with low FODMAP nut butters, maple or golden syrup, fresh fruit, lactose-free whipped cream or whatever low FODMAP options take your fancy.